Just Manny being Manning?

The Broncos’ offense coordinator answered several questions about quarterback Peyton Manning when I tried to shift the conversation to the offensive line, where the team is trying to (temporarily) replace Chris Kuper with Manny Ramirez.

Because Ramirez was inactive most of last season, we haven’t gotten to see much from him. So I asked McCoy what we should know about Manny.

“One of the best of all-time. His play speaks for itself, really,” McCoy said.

Huh?

Oh! McCoy thought I said “Manning.” All due respect to Ramirez, who has filled in admirably while Kuper was recovering from that ankle injury, but he’s hardly a future Hall of Famer.

I told McCoy that I indeed meant Ramirez and not Manning, and then McCoy’s answer made a lot more sense.

“We’ve got a philosophy here of “next man up.” Last year, when [Kuper] went down, Russ Hochstein did a great job. Manny’s been with the ones almost the entire camp, because Chris was limited early on when we started here, so he’s done a great job, and he’s fit right in. We’re not going to skip a beat,” McCoy said. “That’s been our philosophy the whole year. There’s going to be some injuries from week to week, and the next guy steps up. That’s the importance of all the OTAs, minicamp and training camp, so that when your opportunity does come, you’ve got to make the most of it in this business.”

Nicki Jhabvala is a Broncos beat writer for The Denver Post. She was previously the digital news editor for sports. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor. She also spent two years as a home page editor at the New York Times.